Ianto Jones wants a quiet Christmas. He’s rented a house in a remote Welsh village, he’s got the booze in and he’s going to see out Christmas on his own terms. But Ianto Jones is Ianto Jones and, well, if you will accept a holiday spot recommendation from Jack Harkness…

The collision between big city and village, past and present, threat and hope lies at the core of this story and it’s heavy with folk horror themes and motifs. It’s also a collision between Welsh folklore and the undefinable horrors of Torchwood that works instantly. This is both an inherently Torchwood story and one that feels uniquely Welsh in a way that not even other episodes have quite reached. It’s very small scale, very subtle, very odd and very touching and it’s brought to you by some of the best in the field.

Lisa Bowerman excels at this kind of intimate, compressed character piece and the atmosphere here is superb. There’s that sense of quiet you get in villages, when you’re one satnav turn off where you should be and the roads are marked not with road signs but traditions and memories. Everyone has their own way of doing things and the definition of the alien is as likely to be ‘Oh, you’re from Cardiff’ as it is someone, or something coming through the rift. History and reality, the present day and the past are all built on top of each other in places like that and Bowerman continually finds the horror and the sweetness inherent in that.

Stewart Pringle and Lauren Mooney’s script has plenty of depths for her to explore too. Pringle and Mooney have a great ear for character and the jokes here are as unforced as they are  perfectly executed. David-Lloyd’s got Ianto’s ‘smiling through the horror oh GOD WHY ARE PEOPLE’ tone of voice so sharp now he can make you laugh on individual words. He’s in great company too, with Sion Daniel Young especially on top form as Daniel, a local caught up in events at the worst time. He arguably gets the best line of the episode too and trust me you’ll never look at Seabiscuit the same way again.

But Rhian Morgan’s Mrs Watkins is who you remember. Grounded, pragmatic and kind she’s the heart of the story whichever turn it takes. She’s the one who gives Ianto the space to be Ianto, she’s the one who trusts him instinctively, even if he is from Cardiff. She’s also the one who gets the biggest emotional beats of the story, which aren’t what you’d expect and all the more successful for that.

Verdict: This is Torchwood, especially these small cast plays, at its best. Clever and subtle, thematically brawny but light on its feet. A highlight of a consistently strong, consistently inventive range. 9/10

Alasdair Stuart

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